Dallas Cowboys now have to decide what to do with QB Alex Tanney with final cuts looming Saturday

ARLINGTON - The last preseason game is as meaningless as it gets every year in the NFL. But that wasn't the case Thursday night for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Alex Tanney.

Tanney's pro football career was on the line against Houston at AT&T Stadium.

The Cowboys cut quarterback Nick Stephens on Tuesday so they could get an extended look at Tanney against the Texans.

With the Cowboys starters not playing, Tanney played all but the first series. He completed 17-of-31 passes for 177 yards and threw a fourth-quarter interception.

Did Tanney show the Cowboys enough this preseason to make them use a precious roster spot on him when final cuts are made Saturday?

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has said he would like to have a quarterback to develop and would even like to carry three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. However, the Cowboys are thin along the offensive and defensive lines because of injuries and using a roster spot for a developmental third quarterback would seemingly be a hard sale at this point.

Tanney almost had two touchdown passes. Tight end Gavin Escobar couldn't get both feet in bounds on a pass into the end zone in the second quarter, and receiver Tim Benford dropped a pass that would have been a touchdown in the right side of the end zone in the fourth quarter.

Tanney was under pressure most of the night, especially late in the fourth quarter. Houston sacked him seven times in the game.

Garrett said it was hard to assess Tanney's play because of the Cowboys' struggles in pass protection.

"But then you have to assess how he responds to that. That's part of playing this position," Garrett said. "It looked like he kept his composure, moved around, kept his eyes up the field but just didn't get into much of a rhythm throughout the ballgame."

The Cowboys know that cutting Tanney would expose him to waivers and any team in the league could put in a claim on him. Ideally, the Cowboys would like to slip Tanney through waivers and place him on their practice squad Sunday.

Six years ago, the Cowboys lost a gamble with quarterback Matt Moore. They cut him with the idea of re-signing him to the practice squad, only to haveCarolinaclaim him the next day.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones was asked earlier this week if the organization learned a lesson from the experience.

"With all due respect to Matt Moore, I don't know if we let anything get out of here that is going to win us playoff games," Jones said. "Anyway, I just hadn't seen that we let something get out of here that was something we needed to have. He went on to be a roster player and made some starts. I don't know necessarily, though, if it would have made a difference in our plight."

Tanney went undrafted out of Division III Monmouth (Ill.) in 2012. He signed with Kansas City and after the final preseason game the Chiefs placed him on injured reserve with a finger injury.

Kansas City cut Tanney in May, and the Cowboys signed him early in training camp in mid-July.

Tanney's offensive numbers in college make him one of the greatest Division III quarterbacks ever.

But he's known more for being the "trick-shot" quarterback because of a video that showed him making trick football throws that went viral two years ago.

"Before I even released that, I had multiple teams come in and talk to me," Tanney said. "It was all fun, but it didn't hurt with exposure."

Tanney showed the Cowboys that he was more than a YouTube sensation with consistent practices in training camp.

But he really caught their eye in the third preseason game at Arizona.

Tanney was 14-for-19 passing for 136 yards and a touchdown with an interception. Tanney looked even better when comparing his play against Cowboys backup quarterback Kyle Orton, who struggled against the Cardinals with two interceptions.

Tanney's play against Houston wasn't anything close to his performance a few weeks ago at Arizona, however. Now he waits for the Cowboys to decide his fate.

"The biggest thing for me is continuing to grow into the system here because I'm still pretty new to it," Tanney said, "but with every rep I get, I feel like I'm improving and things are starting to slow down for me."

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